Buttertarts…A Christmas Necessity

No Buttertarts Equals Riots

The title of this post is no laughing matter. Your family may be able to live without buttertarts during the holidays but I would be strung up by my ankles and dragged behind a ski-doo if I forgot to add them to my list of Christmas baking. And really to be honest I don’t mind making them every darn year. I look forward to this touch of nostalgia on our Christmas goodie platters.

An Aspiring Young Baker

There was a time when I was a young aspiring baker; say around 1982. I would hang around Grandma’s kitchen and beg to make buttertarts year-round. I must have been a real pain in the butt or just really super cute because most of the time I would get my way. After all, it is a Grandmas job to spoil the grandchildren. She would make the pastry while I counted out raisins and cracked the eggs for the filling. I took the raisin counting very seriously: exactly ten raisins for each tart. That’s not a lot when you think about it, so maybe Grandma was being a little stingy.

Raisins or Pecans?

Excepting the fiddly job of making pastry, buttertarts are super easy to make and Grandma taught me well. I’ve passed on the job of counting the raisins out to my children; or I did until they decided to hate on raisins and insist on pecans instead. I still make a few raisin butter tarts and have a little laugh to myself when the kids can’t tell the difference between the two varieties after they are baked. Such little joys bring pleasure to the holidays.

The Christmas Baking List Begins with Buttertarts

So every year before I begin baking I make a ‘to bake’ list. It is separate from my ‘presents to buy’ list, my ‘to pack’ list, and my ‘to clean’ list. That’s a lot of lists. The point is I ask everyone what they want on that ‘to bake’ list and they insist on two items: 1) Buttertarts and 2) Mini Cheesecakes. Even when we lived in Australia I was able to give them a beloved Christmas memory when I made our special treats so far away from home.